This is an account of the trip I took in June of 2004. I drove from Calgary to Farmington, Maine and then took the scenic route back via Prince Edward Island. The following account is arranged like a journal as though it had been written at the time. All times are local time for wherever I happened to be at the time. I have included the time zone indicator for clarity.
If you want to view the photographs I took during this trip, I have a photo gallery rather than including them inline.
I got a bit of a late start today because I went to the Harry Potter film yesterday. This is not a problem since I have plenty of time to make my trip. After making sure I had everything I was going to need, I set off from home at 1230MDT. At 1258MDT, I put 15L of gasoline in a gas can. Hey, you can't be too careful. Then, a few minutes later, I stopped at Chinook Mall to acquire a few munchies and so on for the trip. I left Chinook Mall at 1334MDT headed south.
From here, the road was largely uneventful. I followed Macleod Trail past the Calgary city limit until it met up with Highway 2. I followed Highway 2 south until arriving at Fort Macleod. At that point, I followed Highway 3 east to Lethbridge. From Lethbridge, I followed Highway 4 south. By the time I was on Highway 4, I could see some weather brewing in the sky. At 1629MDT, I pulled over at a roadside turnout for a bit of a break and took a couple of photographs of the weather. I didn't pause long, though.
After a while, I arrived at Coutts. Unfortunately, they were doing rather a lot of construction work on the highway, both around Coutts and at the border crossing. I had no particular trouble crossing the border although the US Customs official was a bit skeptical about one person driving all the way to Maine. I think my reply to him was something like, "It's called a vacation." which was maybe not the smartest thing to say. Either way, it didn't affect anything and I was cleared.
I had a bit of confusion finding my way back out onto the open road, though, because they were doing all that construction so things were a bit confused. Eventually, I discovered the exit. (Well, it didn't take that long; there weren't too many options.) Then it was clear sailing on I-15 heading south in Montana.
Not far south of the border, I picked up a pretty nasty crosswind which made it next to impossible to travel anywhere near the speed limit (which was, if I recall correctly, 80 mph). I also drove through a rather heavy patch of rain. This wasn't a particularly large patch of rain, but it was heavy and slowed the road down significantly.
Shortly before 1800MDT, I passed through Shelby and turned eastward on US2. This would be the last I would see of an Interstate until North Dakota. At 1756MDT, not far outside of Shelby, I pulled over for a bit of a break and studied the western sky. There was definitely some weather brewing; I would have to keep an eye on it. Not one to be particularly worried about a bit of weather, though, I got back on the road headed east.
I stopped to acquire gasoline in Havre at about 1950MDT. By this time, I could see in the rear view mirror that there was a very significant storm brewing. There was also nearly continuous lightning crashes on the radio. The local radio stations were advising that everyone "take substantial shelter". From what I could see, three separate thunder storms had merged. The storm, however, was behind me and I was travelling faster than the storm anyway, at least according to the radio. So I pressed on through the evening, heading east on US2, watching the ever present lightning flashes in the rear view mirror.
By 0100MDT, the storm was still brewing. I was, however, starting to feel rather tired. So I pulled off the road into a rest stop east of Culbertson and parked for a while. I managed to get a three or so hour nap before availing myself of the rest room and cleaning up a bit. During this stopover, the storm had passed by and was now to the northeast, largely. And the lightning was still going, although much less frequently. That was some storm. At about 0505MDT, I pulled back out onto US2 heading east.
At 0530MDT (0630CDT) I crossed the border into North Dakota. Not that this made any difference in the flatness of the landscape. I used to think driving across Saskatchewan on the Trans Canada Highway was flat. US2 makes that look positively mountainous. And, to make matters worse, there are, perhaps, three corners the whole way.
Still on US2, I arrived at Minot at 0930CDT. I had been passed a couple of times by a bus that had the logo of a sports team from Williston. I had been holding my speed at 55 mph the whole way from Calgary (or mostly, anyway) which is below the speed limit. The bus would pass me then I would pass it as it was pulled over for a rest stop or what have you. At Minot, I purchased gasoline and continued on my way.
I pulled over for a bit of a break at the Pleasant Lake rest area at about 1100CDT. About an hour and a half later, I stopped at another rest area. Eventually, I arrived at I-29 where I parted from US2 and headed south. I continued doing 55 mph even though the speed limit was a lot higher (but, hey, I was above the minimum speed). I decided to stop for a good rest at Fargo. To that end, I found myself checking into the Select Inn at 1520CDT.
I showered and acquired some food at a Wendy's (I believe it was). I acquired some other supplies at a department store near the hotel. Then, I spent some time relaxing, studying my route, watching a bit of TV, and then zonked out for the night.
After partaking in the complementary continental breakfast, I checked out of the hotel in Fargo shortly before 0700CDT and hit the road. I crossed into South Dakota at 0815CDT and about 40 minutes later, I stopped at a highway patrol rest area south of Sisseton shortly after buying some gasoline. I had been battling a very strong and variable crosswind and stopping at the rest stop was entertaining. I almost couldn't open the door to get out of my car (or back in after). I even signed the guestbook at the rest stop.
Then it was back on the road. After motoring along for a few more hours, I entered Iowa at about 1340CDT and picked up US20 east from Sioux City. By my travel plan, this would be the last I would see of an Interstate.
At about 1620CDT, I stopped at Fort Dodge for gasoline. Later, at about 1920CDT, I shopped at a Dairy Queen in Manchester for food. At 2030CDT, I crossed the border into Illinois and at about 2220CDT, I stopped for gasoline in Rockford.
Eventually, I ended up in Chicago. This was largely entertaining since there was a lot of construction work going on. At one point, there was a sign missing due to the construction and I ended up backtracking a bit. At 2220CDT, I stopped for gasoline in a suburb or Chicago (just after missing that turn) and continued on my way. There was another spot where I missed a turn because I had to make a right turn onto a bridge and an immediate left turn after the bridge but I didn't know this and ended up missing the left turn. I ended up wandering around a maze of one way streets in a residential neighborhood until I got back to the missed turn and got back on track. I think this was before the gas stop. It's all a bit muddled.
In the dead of the night, at 0225CDT, I crossed into Indiana and continued eastward on US20. Then, at about 0600CDT (0700EDT) I crossed into Ohio. I stopped briefly at a rest area (from about 0747EDT to 0830EDT) and rested a bit.
At 1025EDT, I acquired more gasoline and continued on my way. At about 1540EDT, I crossed into Pennsylvania but not before having a bit of a misadventure in Cleaveland. Everything was going well until I ended up coming across a rather big bridge into downtown Cleaveland. US20 then makes a right turn at the bottom of that bridge. And it is marked. But the problem was that I ended up one lane too far to the left to make the right turn and by time I realized it, I had passed the turning point. To make matters more entertaining, that particular spot is arranged like a traffic circle except that the through traffic just keeps going straight and the turning traffic travels around a sort of traffic square in a counter-clockwise direction. To make matters more interesting, half the lane markers on half the roads were worn right off and when I had the opportunity to get back on track, I ended up making yet another wrong turn. Ultimately, I ended up on an Interstate going west (which is not where I wanted to be going). Resisting the urge to panic, I calmly followed what signs I could find and finally ended up crossing that same bridge again but in the correct lane and got back on track.
Additionally, after passing through Cleaveland, US20 follows the lakeshore through rather a lot of settlements. I eventually got fed up with catching a red light every half kilometer or so and bailed over to I-90 which I followed all the way to Erie, Pennsylvania where I picked up US20 again.
Things were largely uneventful once I passed into New York at 1630EDT. I acquired gasoline at 1950EDT and pressed on.
After travelling through four or five valleys that all looked the same, right down to practically the same set of curves on the highway, I had pulled over and stopped for a nap at a rest area at the bottom of a valley. I had been convinced that I was driving in circles. I'm still not convinced that I wasn't and since it was night, there weren't a lot of cues to indicate that anything was different. Anyway, I pulled out of the rest stop at 0035EDT and continued heading east on US20.
After passing by Albany, I entered Massachussettes at 0430EDT. Eventually, I arrived at Pittsfield where I turned north on US7, bidding a mixed adieu to US20 and after a short ride, arrived in Vermont at 0530EDT. I stoped for a nap again at 0630EDT and continued on my way again at 0830EDT.
At 1030EDT, I stopped again for gasoline. Then, about three hours later, at 1335EDT, I entered New Hampshire. After a while, I reached Burlington where I bid adieu to US7 and headed east once again on US2. This road would take me all the way to Farmington.
At 1425EDT, I crossed into Maine. I was on the home stretch now. What could delay me now? Shows what I knew. Just five minutes later, I ran into a long construction delay which kept traffic stopped for twenty minutes. A several minute delay just ten minutes later put paid to the home stretch. Without those delays, I might have made it the rest of the way to Farmington without a rest. I still thought I could. Then, only a quarter hour later, I drove by an accident which delayed me a bit more. It was like some higher power was trying to tell me something. So I stopped for a forty minute break and caught a power nap between 1518EDT and 1608EDT.
I eventually pulled into Farmington and found a place to stay. After checking in, I had a shower and got my stuff arranged. Then I called my friends and arranged to meet them. While I was rattling around the hotel room, I got a bit of a surprise, too. Since I had my cellphone on to make a telephone call, I actually received a text message. (And it was even a legitimate one.) I hadn't been aware that text messaging would work outside of the Telus Mobility service area.
My visit with my friends, Lynne and Darrell, was pleasant. There was one day where I was basically on my own because they were both working, but hey, that wasn't much of a problem. I wandered around Farmington, acquired a couple of books at the used book store on main street, drove around the area a bit, and so on. It is nice country.
After hanging out in Farmington for four days, I decided it was time to hit the road. After paying a final visit to Lynne and Darrell at about 0845EDT, I left their place at 1130EDT with instructions that I must call when I got home.
I stopped for gasoline on the way out of town and then set off southeast toward Augusta on State Highway 27. In Augusta, I took a wrong turn at the roundabout and ended up going the wrong way on State Highway 17 but I got myself righted and finally ended up headed for the Atlantic coast where I picked up US1 and headed northward along the coast. After a while, at 1435EDT, I arrived at Lincolnville where I stopped for a while at the beach. This was my first view of the ocean. To be honest, I was a bit underwhelmed. I was far more whelmed by the Penobscot River crossing at 1530EDT where I stopped and read the tourist literature about the bridge.
At 1850EDT, I arrived at the border crossing at Callais and cleared Canadian customs and entered St. Stephen and New Brunswick. There, I followed Highway 1 eastward toward Saint John where I managed to get a bit turned around as I tried to avoid the toll bridge. After getting myself unturned around, I stopped at a Wendy's for food and got back on my way. Up to this point I had managed to avoid all tolls. Hey, it's a hobby.
At 2300ADT, I stopped for gas at Norton and continued on my way.
Eventually, I picked up Highway 2 and continued East past Moncton then picked up Highway 16 and headed off toward the Confederation Bridge. At about 0120ADT, I crossed the bridge and entered Prince Edward Island. I drove around for a while, taking wrong turns and so on, until I ended up at Wood Islands Provincial Park and a ferry landing. I pulled off the road at the information kiosk at 0330ADT and zonked out for a while.
At 0545ADT, I was up and about and I wandered around for a bit and took a couple of photographs of the Wood Island Lighthouse. Then I set of westward and arrived at the Confederation Bridge again around 0725ADT. After a brief rest stop to stretch my legs and so on (and accidentally triggering my car alarm. Oops.) I approached the bridge and the toll plaza. This would be the first toll I paid on my entire trip since you only have to pay when you leave the island.
Since it was now daylight, I could see the bridge as I crossed. I have to admit that the pictures do do it some justice. Driving a car across is not all that much of a challenge, even with a big crosswind, because there are walls along the side of the roadway that are higher than most cars. The truck ahead of me was having a harder time of it. It was beautiful to look out over the ocean and see the waves and to look ahead and see the bridge curving away into the distance. It was nice in the dark too, but you couldn't see near so much. One thing, though. It was pretty cold at that time of the morning, with the wind coming off the water.
Anyway, at 0750ADT, I crossed back into New Brunswick where I stretched my legs for a bit and got back on the road. At 0945ADT, I bought gasoline and continued on my way. Eventually, I was on Highway 2 heading west. Now the trip home would be easy; I would just follow the Trans Canada Highway.
At 1205ADT, I stopped in Nackawic and looked at the World's Largest Axe. I don't know whether it is or not, but it is kind of neat. Then I hit the road again and acquired some food at a Subway in Hartland. I continued west until I reached Edmundston and decided it was time to stop for a while and took a room at the Comfort Inn.
I bought gas at 0850ADT and then stopped for some food. I then hit the road at 0920ADT. At 0930ADT, I entered Quebec. I followed the Trans Canada Highway through to Montreal with a couple of stops at rest areas for calls of nature. In Montreal, however, things got interesting. I hit the city in the middle of the afternoon and they had a lane closed near the west side on the elevated freeway. That slowed traffic up quite a bit and it took nearly an hour to get across the city. Once I cleared the traffic jam, I continued on toward Ottawa.
At 1600EDT, I entered Ontario and forty minutes later, I stopped for gasoline. I made it all the way from Edmunston on a single tank of gas. Then, I managed to get tangled up in a traffic jam in Ottawa. Of course, I did arrive in Ottawa at rush hour. While I was barely moving in traffic, I decided I would take the long way around and take the 401 via Toronto. So I picked up the 416 and headed southward.
At about 1815EDT, I stopped for some food and continued on my way. As I was driving, I was listening to the English language leadership debate. This was not terribly exciting. I mean, why would anyone want to listen to grown men acting like three-year-olds?
As I travelled the 401, I hardly noticed anything unusual. Then, I suddenly realized that I was travelling down the "express" lanes and that there was a whole other set of lanes to the right on another roadway. Wild. Then, as the density in the area increased, the lanes became visible all the time. It's not that it was terribly confusing, really, but it was different in my experience. I was fortunate that I was coming through in the evening, though, since the traffic wasn't too bad.
After a time, I arrived at the interchange for the 400 which would take me back northward around the Great Lakes. So I headed north and picked up highway 11 which would take me through Sault Ste Marie and on to Thunder Bay.
I stopped for gasoline right around midnight. Then, at about 0140EDT, I stoped for a rest. At about 0605EDT, I was back on the road, feeling somewhat refreshed. Then, at 0800EDT, I stopped for a short break west of North Bay. Then, at 1015EDT, I stopped for some food.
At 1400EDT, I stopped on the north side of Sault Ste Marie for food, about half an hour after stopping for gasoline. I stopped for a short rest at 1520EDT. Then, at 1845EDT, I saw a sign for, get this, "Yellow Brick Road". I just couldn't resist stopping and taking a picture of the sign.
At about 2020EDT, I stopped for the night at the Sunset Motel in Schrieber, Ontario. There was still 2250km to go on the trip home. It had been a somewhat long day with a few major construction delays along Highway 11 and a few other annoyances (such as truckers that were tailgating, and so on.) I had stuck at 90km/h for the whole way from Sault Ste. Marie for fuel savings and that probably annoyed folks, but hey, it was also the speed limit.
At 0815EDT, I pulled back on the road and arrived in Thunder Bay at 1040EDT. I thought about visiting my grand parents but looking at the timing, I though I could make it back to Alberta in time to surprise Dad at the annual CARL picnic. I did go through the city, though, because I needed gas and wanted to get some snacks. So, at about 1120EDT, I pulled out of Thunder Bay with a full tank of gas and snacks.
From Thunder Bay, I decided to take the southern route all the way to Manitoba. This meant a short trip through Minnesota, but hey, as I told the Customs guy at Coutts, it's a vacation. So at 1158EDT, I reached the start of "MOM's Way" (Manitoba Ontario Minnesota route). The other route would have been to take Highway 17 all the way to Manitoba rather than keep following Highway 11.
At 1330CDT, I stopped for a rest, west of Mine Centre. Later, on the way through Fort Frances, I got stopped for the first time ever at a check stop. That was entertaining but not much of an inconvenience. At around 1530CDT, I passed through Rainy River and had my second encounter with US Customs. This one didn't go so smoothly. They ran my passport and asked the usual questions. Then, instead of waving me through, they asked me to pull over to the side. I wonder what they were checking. Maybe it just flagged because less than two weeks before I had crossed into the US a thousand miles west. They asked be rather a lot of questions to which I gave somewhat confusing answers, apparently. They wanted to know where I was going. So I told them I was going to Winnipeg, on my way home. They then asked where home was and I said Calgary. This took a few minutes to sort out. Then, they checked my trunk. This was where the real entertainment started.
I have a personalized license plate. This plate has my amateur radio callsign on it and this is the one that is on my car. I happen to have two of this plate but since Alberta only requires rear plates, the seond plate is in my trunk. Now, in order to register my car originally, I had to get a regular plate. When my callsign plate came, there was no requirement to return the other plate. And, for lack of anything better to do with it, I left it in the trunk of my car. I'm convinced the Customs guy at Coutts saw the plate but didn't bother questioning it, maybe because he knew how license plates work in Alberta. However, the folks at Baudette apparently found it suspicous. Then it took about five minutes to explain about personalized plates and all that jazz, which they didn't seem to want to believe. Eventually, everything got sorted with that and they returned my passport.
I'm convinced that either someone was being trained or I was the nth person through so they decided to pick on me. Either way, I'm pretty sure that if a bus hadn't shown up at the crossing, I wouldn't have been let through for some time. My advice to anyone who is crossing borders is to think before you open your yap since if you're being delayed anyway, anything you say that confuses the issue will delay you even more; it won't help.
Anyway, at about 1550CDT, I was on the road in Minnesota heading west toward Manitoba. Less than an hour later, I got to do the Customs dance all over again but with the Canadians this time. I didn't have any real trouble with them; I think they were just bored so they asked more questions than normal. Besides, it was raining a bit at this point and the Customs stop was under a canopy so I really wasn't overly worried. So, at 1640CDT, I was on my way.
Now, in a twist of symetry, I drove through a fairly heavy rain storm just after entering Manitoba. It wasn't particularly bad, but I mean, within an hour of crossing into the US both times, I ran into a heavy downpour. It's almost enough to make a person think someone is trying to tell them something.
I arrived on the west side of Winnipeg (at the Husky Restaurant) at about 1915CDT. I acquired gasoline and food there before heading west again at 2030CDT. Again, I thought about stopping in and visiting my grandparents but decided that it was to late and again, I was in even better shape to make it back to Alberta in time to surprise Dad.
I stopped at the Manitoba Tourist Depot at the border and availed myself of the facilities at 2355CDT. Then, twenty minutes later, at 2315MDT, I entered Saskatchewan.
The trip across Saskatchewan was mostly uneventful. At one point, I came through a town and saw a sign for a construction zone. Then, as I crested the hill, I found myself staring straight at a number of lights (at eye level for the top of the hill) that must each of been nearly five hundred watts. These lights were to light up the construction zone as far as I can tell. There were no reflectors to direct the light downward or anything like that. To make matters more dicey, there were flaggers directing traffic. I was completely blinded at this point so I was slowing down anyway and just caught a glimpse of a sign warning about flaggers. Even with that bit of warning, I just about clobbered the flagger because I simply couldn't see. A word of advice for night construction: don't blind the traffic you're trying to control.
I got tangled up a bit in the construction at Regina but that wasn't much of a problem. Then, I missed the exit at Moose Jaw so I missed getting gas there. Oops. But then, I though I might be able to make Swift Current. Alas, no such luck would be had. Fortunately, I had that gas can I had filled on my way out of Calgary. So, with my fuel guage on empty, I pulled over to the side of the road and emptied the gas can into my tank. Man, was it cold. The temperature was just below freezing. Even considering it was the middle of the night, it was bloody cold for the time of year.
With the fuel crisis averted, I made it to Swift Current at 0425MDT and, lo, there was a gas station that was open. So I filled up and was on my way again. Then, an hour later, I pulled off the road at a rest stop and caught a quick nap. Then, at 0710MDT, I was back on the road and at 0755MDT, I crossed the border into Alberta. I was clear sailing on into Calgary from there and I arrived at home at 1140MDT, one hour short of 13 days since leaving.
After getting home and showering and all that jazz, I decided to go see a movie or two. So I went to the Garfield movie and The Day After Tomorrow. Both movies were worth it. So there you have it. A road trip sandwiched between movies. And, I was home in time to surprise Dad at the picnic.
For those of you who get off on useless statistics, here are some:
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